On bunyip

I guess only a Leone or Coppola could meet my expectations, so I must not be too harsh on Kamal Mukherjee. He ought to be lauded for taking a chance, but the fact that his adaptation only gets a 6.7 in IMDB tells me that there is room for Bollywood yet.

When that happens, it’s imperative that Bunyip is done right.

This is how Mr Mukherjee sees bunyip.

Okay, this may well be closer to the Australian cryptid than what Mr Bandyopadhyay might have in mind. I am not sure how well he knew his antipodean lore, but the author clearly envisaged an anthropoid that was not afraid of fire.

Of course, this wasn’t the biggest departure from the book for Mr Mukherjee, who was clearly inspired by this:

Well, his CGI-inspired imitation pales in comparison to the low-budget 1980s Hollywood original. I hope when Bollywood picks this up, they go back to the atmospherics of Mr Bandyopadhyay, and add a dose of Michael Crichton.

Mr Crichton’s African caper also starts off in East Africa and involves looking for diamond, in this case in the legendary city of Zinj, which is guarded by a troop of gorilla-chimpanzee or gorilla-human hybrids. Surely that’s a better template for bunyip!